[HN Gopher] Stock Sale Day Before Fed Emergency
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       Stock Sale Day Before Fed Emergency
        
       Author : andrew_
       Score  : 36 points
       Date   : 2021-10-02 21:05 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.zerohedge.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.zerohedge.com)
        
       | rich_sasha wrote:
       | I distrust ZeroHedge to the point that I would assume they're
       | actively lying about stuff most of the time, but... if true, this
       | would be beyond shocking.
        
         | bloodyplonker22 wrote:
         | The "smarter" fake news bloggers usually post things that have
         | some degree of truth and are much harder to prove as actually
         | fake.
        
         | quickthrowman wrote:
         | Zero Hedge is a mix of a bit of good info, but mostly bad
         | permabear takes. This is the former:
         | https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-ethics-clarida/fed-v...
        
       | pliny wrote:
       | He made those trades in late February, not late march, so if the
       | result of those trades was net long he probably did worse than
       | people who traded after hearing the announcements.
        
       | newaccount2021 wrote:
       | The Fed may possibly be more powerful than the Federal government
       | during peacetime. Almost every problem in our economy can be
       | traced back to Fed meddling. Misinvestment, malinvestment,
       | inflation, moral hazard...the list goes on and on. The Fed truly
       | does reward its clients...the growth in hyper-wealth has created
       | a whole new class of ultra-rich while most toil away with no gain
       | in real wages, left to rent their lives as assets climb to the
       | stratosphere thanks to the Fed.
       | 
       | Contrarians on HN love to argue that there is no inflation. I
       | bought our current house three years ago. According to Zillow and
       | comparable sales, it has TRIPLED in value since 2018. If you
       | don't think there is inflation....
        
         | Dylan16807 wrote:
         | Inflation isn't measured in house prices. If you even tried to
         | make that a major factor, you'd get ridiculously different
         | measures of inflation in different cities.
        
           | readthenotes1 wrote:
           | Inflation used to include house prices until the 1980s where
           | they wanted to quell inflation. An easy way to do it was to
           | change the definition.
           | 
           | Now, it includes something called owner equivalent rent, to
           | include both rent and owning a house.
           | 
           | The intent is to include a house prices in inflation
           | indirectly.
        
           | joe_the_user wrote:
           | Economists do talk about asset inflation [1]. The Fed and the
           | media not so much. The price of housing is very much a
           | symptom of asset inflation and this is plausibly the result
           | of the Fed continually injecting money into and/or
           | "backstopping" various capital markets.
           | 
           | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_price_inflation
        
             | Dylan16807 wrote:
             | Assets matter, but are any other physical assets going up
             | the same way?
        
       | ecommerceguy wrote:
       | The optics are certainly very bad on the timing and size of these
       | trades to the point where it should be investigated for an ethics
       | violation. That will NEVER happen.
        
       | noway421 wrote:
       | Not disputing any points in general, interesting read. But in the
       | end of the article: the fact that he has many bank accounts may
       | be used for accounting purposes? The document doesn't say if the
       | bank accounts are with different banks or with the same bank. And
       | it's not like he has 250k in each bank account, which would
       | allude to FDIC insurance limit, either.
        
       | leoedin wrote:
       | It seems kind of crazy that the incredibly distorting effect of
       | consistently low interest rates, quantitive easing and other
       | central bank policies - mostly to the benefit of existing capital
       | owners - is seen as almost a-political in the West.
       | 
       | We argue about other things - like tax rates and social security,
       | and meantime our central banks carry on with their mission almost
       | unchallenged. Central banks have managed to create an aura of
       | science over what they do.
       | 
       | Mean while the cumulative policies of the last decade have
       | created incredible asset price inflation, mostly to the detriment
       | of the young. Is this healthy for society? That doesn't seem to
       | be a question the (mostly baby boomer) people making these
       | decisions are asking.
       | 
       | The central banks try to paint themselves as mere lever pullers,
       | reacting to inflation and economic growth with their interest
       | rates. But the system is so much more complicated than that - all
       | these other unseen effects rippling through the economy and
       | affecting people's lives.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | strikelaserclaw wrote:
         | The kind of people who even know this is happening are the ones
         | who have a vested interest to keep it there in the first place.
         | People are selfish and greedy.
        
         | jjoonathan wrote:
         | Yes, it's nuts.
         | 
         | The moment that younger generations realize that inflation
         | reduces debt, I predict that, ummm, the baton will be firmly
         | gripped, yanked, and the equilibrium will shift hard in the
         | opposite direction. Then we'll have a different set of
         | problems.
        
         | zzzzzzzza wrote:
         | the distortion is much more fundamental than interest rate
         | policy.
         | 
         | The real distortion is taxing income and sales and not land or
         | other forms of monopoly rent.
         | 
         | creating the vast majority of money through mortgages or
         | student loans to motivate people to work hard as slaves for
         | feudal masters.
         | 
         | central banks have no control over that fundamental design
         | decision, they just oil it, but if they didn't it wouldn't be
         | any prettier of a sitution.
        
           | wonnage wrote:
           | Government spending on social programs would be a much more
           | straightforward way to create money, but seems politically
           | impossible
        
         | wonnage wrote:
         | Housing demand has many inputs, only one of which is low
         | interest rates. It's not like we've exhausted the economy's
         | capacity to build... NIMBY policies and a general demographic
         | shift towards living in cities (which may be reversing) are
         | also to blame.
         | 
         | Inflation has myriad causes and money supply is the culprit
         | only when you have too many dollars chasing an at-capacity
         | resource.
        
         | lend000 wrote:
         | It isn't really apolitical. Ironically, it seems to be more
         | supported by the left (like the people downvoting you), despite
         | the lack of consistency with progressive economics. I suppose
         | it enables big spending and debt, which can be progressive,
         | while more than undoing itself with X-inflation + deadweight
         | loss.
        
           | jjoonathan wrote:
           | > Ironically, it seems to be more supported by the left (like
           | the people downvoting you)
           | 
           | Speak for yourself.
           | 
           | > it enables big spending and debt
           | 
           | No, low interest rates are not what enables big government
           | debt. The government can monetize its debt -- money printer,
           | remember?
           | 
           | > , which can be progressive, while more than undoing itself
           | with X-inflation + deadweight loss.
           | 
           | Well, if the losses trickle down as effectively as the last
           | 40 years of gains, I think the bottom 90% of the pyramid
           | should rather welcome those losses.
        
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       (page generated 2021-10-02 23:01 UTC)